How to License Your Books and Programs to Corporations with Shadeed Eleazer

Kathi: Hi everyone, I'm Kathi, and I'm here with Shadeed Eleazer. He's a Maryland-based US Navy veteran and creator of a business model that was licensed by 17 US states and utilized for a government re-election campaign. Experts and entrepreneurs hire Shadeed and his team to help them convert their signature online programs and best-selling books into a license-ready curriculum that's sold to corporations, universities and government agencies. This content licensing strategy increases recurring revenue for businesses and solves the problem of the time for money exchange for his clients. Welcome, Shadeed. I'm so glad that you're here on the show today.

Shadeed: It's an honor, a privilege and a pleasure to share this time and space with your audience. Great to be here.

Kathi: Absolutely. So you have such a long, winding history. I've been reading a little bit about you. So you were in the Navy, and then what happened? Why did you start this road to licensing and that type of thing?

Shadeed: My journey to licensing started in the military, by accident, through necessity. And I will explain what by accident through necessity means. You see, I was part of the 9/11 response team. My ship, the USS Kitty Hawk, CV-63, was part of the first responders for the attacks on the World Trade Center. And with any Navy ship, or let's say the military in general, there's a type of operational readiness. So for each listener, each viewer of this episode, what I want you to do is to picture your current space around you. If you're at your office, just think about your desk for a second: stapler, laptop, let's say printer, for example. Each piece of equipment has to have a certain certification in order to use it in a military context. Now, the system that we used to manage all of our printers, equipment and so on was very outdated. It was literally a sheet of paper with a two-hole punch that was attached to the wall. There wasn't software involved. But due to the attacks of 9/11, the mandate came out from DC that all battle units had to be fully compliant in order to deal with the present and unknown danger that emerged. And so we received funding for a software package that no one knew how to use. This is all going to turn into licensing, so stick with me, ladies and gentlemen.

Kathi: It's sounding government-like here.

Shadeed: Yes. So no one knew how to use the software. We all worked 15 to 16 hour days out to sea; this was our standard work day. And after work, I took the initiative to learn how the software worked. I became proficient enough that I learned the software, but I also created, more or less, a package that allowed people to get up to speed quickly and get certified. We were the first division of 10 divisions in combat systems, and our numbers as far as readiness started to go up. So the other supervisors of combat systems two through 10 said, "Wait a minute. Why is the first division going up and ours are still the same? What's going on? What's the secret?" And the word began to get out that Eleazer, because we all go by our last names in the military, created this system that allows the sailors to get up to speed quickly. So I was assigned to deliver training to the other departments. When we talk about licensing, the method for solving a problem and packaging it, that was my first example of licensing. What ended up happening was all divisions were up to speed, and I was promoted, and this is something they never do. I was promoted and a new position was created for me to ensure readiness across the department, and since this was a time of war, I earned a Navy Achievement Medal, or what they call a NAM. That was my first example of licensing. So taking your knowledge, packaging it and delivering it for value to other organizations and entities is the framework of what we're going to discuss. That is my earliest experience with licensing, and that's my story.

Taking your knowledge, packaging it and delivering it for value to other organizations and entities is the framework of what we're going to discuss.

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Kathi: That's exceptional. That's exceptional. And for them to go out of the box and create a new department, or a new title for you to go train everybody, that's saying something. You're a mover and a shaker. So how long were you in the Navy?

Shadeed: I was in the Navy for a total of six years.

Kathi: Okay. And how long have you been out now?

Shadeed: Oh my goodness, I'm dating myself. Let me do some quick math here. About 18 years.

Kathi: Okay. So when you got out of the Navy, what did you do right away, besides try to regroup and figure out life as a civilian?

Shadeed: That's exactly what I did, because when you come from what they call a forward-deployed Navy overseas, let's say in combat zones, you have to slow things down and figure things out. So after that period of readjustment, as they call it, I immediately went into contracting and also launched a business on the side, which actually still exists: career services for military vets who were transitioning. I personally had the most tumultuous transition from the overseas Navy into civilian life, and I said, "No veteran should have the same fate that I experienced." So that was what I transitioned into. That led into additional licensing examples as I became more experienced as a contractor or consultant, where I would get contracts extended by providing training packages to organizations that had contracts. So let's say you landed a contract, and I would approach you and say, "Well, have you considered the training behind the software you would deliver, for example?" And you'd be surprised at how many multi-million dollar contracts won the bid or proposal for installing a software system for 1,000 employees, but didn't consider how they were going to train them on the new system. So that was something that worked, rinse and repeat, over and over again, and creating the training that was ultimately licensed to the contractor or the agency itself essentially helped me write my ticket to major success throughout my career.

Kathi: Yeah, and it sounds like it was just something that was innately in you anyhow. You have the organizational expertise and the forethought to know how to actually train these people and how to put the system together so that they'll understand the system and actually implement it. That's why I wanted to have you on the show, because you've got that great organizational mind already. And that's what I love about life: oftentimes the most successful people are doing what's innately their gift, and like you said, it was an accidental happening, and yet there we have it. Wow. Well, I have a lot of people who are in corporate, who are book authors, who are content creators, and I'm so intrigued with what you do. So what specific challenges do you help clients solve? Say I have a course or I have a book. What specifically do you help them solve?

Shadeed: Well, when we talk about what licensing is, we have to simplify things in order for the light bulb to go off. Licensing is giving permission to access a system, an idea, a work of art or creation. And for an author, for a speaker, for a coach, there's numerous ways for licensing to benefit that particular business. If creating a blog post was the base of the mountain, then if you're serious about building a legacy around your knowledge, building a brand around your experience and creating recurring revenue on a larger scale, licensing is the game that all serious entrepreneurs, especially service-based entrepreneurs, play. Now, to answer your question simply, I help experts, entrepreneurs, speakers and authors to package their content. You can go to an intellectual property attorney with a course, for example, and they'll shop your course to a university, agency or corporation. But in every licensing deal, there's always going to be a customization. Meaning the slide deck for, let's say, your training course with Harvard University needs to be Harvard Crimson. Or Harvard University is going to need you to read the disclaimer, or legal's going to need you to update module five and add this verbiage in. And if you're paying a retainer to an intellectual property attorney for content creation, the rate doesn't equal the level of effort that needs to be delivered, so you're ultimately overpaying for that part of the process. So what started to happen was that intellectual property attorneys would come and partner with me and say, "Hey, I have a rockstar coach who has a program that's ready to go, but we must make this program license ready." When you create content with a license-ready approach, you ultimately save time and you reduce your overall expenses, because you're building with the future in mind. What many people do is create content based on their own understanding, without an understanding of how curriculum design takes place, and then once they reach the point where licensing takes place, they have to rework everything. So I save them time, I save them money, and most importantly, outside of the license-ready context, I help them understand that their content is ready to exist on a world-class level. The mindset is oftentimes the biggest challenge that prevents smart and talented people from becoming licensors of their content at the highest level.

Licensing is giving permission to access a system, an idea, a work of art or creation.

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Kathi: Right. They feel like, "Oh, maybe it's not good enough." So what makes it license ready? Is it more generic, so that it could be mass consumed and then licensed? Whenever I do a presentation, obviously you need your logos and all their stuff on the slide decks. But is the actual process more generic? Explain to me what you do to make it license ready.

Shadeed: Well, let's use a famous example, a public example. Let's take Rich Dad Poor Dad, an iconic personal finance franchise that has been created, an educational franchise. First of all, if we're going to license Rich Dad Poor Dad, the mistake that many people make is that they don't have longevity in mind when building their brand. It may be Rich Dad Poor Dad in January, and in March it may be personal finance for entrepreneurs, and in August it may be how to create cash flow to become financially free. So the first thing is going through the market research and the proper testing procedures in order to make sure that you have a winning title that attracts people's attention and that people want to consume, based on the test, the feedback and the conversion rates, not your own understanding and bright ideas. Next is understanding the content, so developing content for multiple learning types. Of course, there's people who may need to see the content. There's people who may need to listen. There's people who need to go through examples and scenarios. So understand who your audience is and how they typically consume content, how other properties and titles within your niche market are consumed, and create content with that audience in mind. Next is the level of professionalism. What I always recommend is making sure that your license-ready material stands alone. If you have a website, for example, that is housing your business services, your signature or flagship program should have its own stand-alone brand. And finally, there's ownership. If you create a course based on your own understanding and it happens to be a best-seller, the chances of your content being stolen in some way, or duplicated by a parent or larger company, skyrocket. So understanding how to protect your content is the final piece of that puzzle.

Kathi: Awesome. Awesome. Yeah, and I think a lot of entrepreneurs will change their titles, as opposed to just sticking with the core title. So you're recommending that if something is licensed, it would have its own domain as well, a stand-alone apart from their own domain?

Shadeed: Well, yes. If I'm building a franchise, I'm thinking in terms of longevity, so it needs to stand alone on its own. And when it comes to domains, that's one area of protecting the intellectual property or the brand itself. For many entrepreneurs, that becomes the ceiling: domain protection, which may mean, well, I'm going to reserve the .com, the .net and possibly the .org versions of those domains, and they oftentimes forget other types of protection for their intellectual property. So when we're talking about creating a brand that you can easily identify, that stands out from the rest of the competitors, domains are one way to do so.

Kathi: Perfect. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. So you've been an entrepreneur now for several years. Do you have a hack, an organizing hack, or something that you use to keep your business running smoothly, your own personal secret hack?

Shadeed: Yes, it's called the daily gratitude formula. The daily gratitude formula was created during a terrible year of my life. It was similar to a country music song: my dog ran away, it was just one thing after the other. Times were so low during this era of my life. I was at a coffee shop in the morning, because when I would wake up, it felt like a refrigerator was on my chest. It was just crushing anxiety. So I would have to get up and go for a walk, and I would walk until I felt a clear mind. And on this particular day, things were just such a storm that I had to write down positive things, because the avalanche was so great. There's four quadrants to the formula. First, it starts with five things I'm grateful for. Five things I'm grateful for could be as simple as the gift of life. When you're starting this process, it's like developing a muscle: when you start out, you may not feel that you have as many things to be grateful for, so you have to start with the basics. Next are five reasons that I am abundant. That could be the gift of my time in helping someone else. It could be listening to someone else's challenges. It could be paying the expenses, personal and business-wise. Just being able to give time, money, effort and so on. Next is five people who I will share ideas with on this day. Every single day I reach out to five people. In some cases, it's active listening: "Hey, what are you working on? What are you excited about creating?" And exchanging some form of introductions and referrals, and getting in the spirit of creative exchange every day. And finally, five reasons why today will be awesome. Oftentimes our day is based on momentum. If you drop something on your foot at 6:00 a.m., it can create a chain of events that leads to what we'll call a bad day. And oftentimes a bad day is based on a moment that we locked on to, a moment that created a strong emotion that we held on to throughout the first part of the day, and it led to momentum that created a bad day. So what happens if you say, "You know what? Here's five reasons why today will be awesome"? That could be weather related, it could be, I'm going to have a conversation, I'm going to be on the podcast, you name it. But the key is to claim that it's going to be a great day. With my particular formula, I write this down. One of my graphic designers created a very nice template, and I've been using the template for a number of years. That's my process. That's my hack, my secret weapon to help get through the day. Gratitude itself is a weapon. It insulates you from a lot, because it's impossible to feel anger, it's impossible to feel sadness. Gratitude and negative emotion cannot occupy the same space.

Gratitude and negative emotion cannot occupy the same space.

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Kathi: Yeah, they can't. And gratitude trumps it every time. I love practicing gratitude. I do it every night as I lay down: a recap of my day, what I'm grateful for. And it can be as easy as, I love my pillow, I love my blanket. So I agree, it starts out where some people might not have that muscle developed. But once you get used to being grateful for things, it's the sunny sky thing. That's a wonderful hack. I so appreciate that. So that leads me to my next question. What are you up to now? What are you excited about? What projects do you have in the works?

Shadeed: Well, I recently graduated from the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program, and this program is rigorous. It's three months of working on your business versus in your business. They designed the exercises to be so time-consuming that you must learn to delegate and outsource in order to make it through the program. So right now we're focused on hiring and building out our org chart. Hopefully within the next six weeks, we will bring on up to 17 members. We're focused on the build-out of the Content Licensing Academy app, and that app is going to focus on creating the most comprehensive licensing resource on mobile devices. It'll have an encyclopedia and a number of case studies, and it'll be the location where my audience, who has stuck with me all throughout the years, can get access to my longer-form content. I'm doing less with social media and investing more into community, where people who support my work, either through time and attention or financially, can get the best that I have to offer, all on their smartphone. And on the philanthropic side, we have a number of projects coming up, ranging from an initiative where we help underprivileged youth gain access to passports and help them with an introduction to early travel, to our classrooms campaign, where we modernize underperforming or underfunded classrooms and provide 21st century learning environments. So I would say the next two to three months will be very busy, but I'm excited about what is to come.

Kathi: Very, very exciting, and I commend you for going into the program. I think it's really funny that Goldman Sachs made it so that you would have to delegate. That's part of their training anyhow, I'm sure: you'd better do it or you're not going to be able to handle it. I have a girlfriend who's just gone into a major program like this as well, and delegation is what it's all about. So that's exciting. I love the fact that you're helping young kids learn to travel, because, and from being in the Navy you know this, my husband was in the Guard, the more places that you see, the better you are as a person, and the more that you have to give back, because now you understand other people much more easily than if you're stuck in your little burg all your life. So that sounds fantastic. You have so much stuff in the works. You've been doing this for a while. What's the main lesson that you have learned throughout the years of being an entrepreneur?

Shadeed: The main lesson that I've learned with being an entrepreneur is the importance of cash flow, by any means. What I mean by this is when you interview, let's say, 100 entrepreneurs and you ask them what's the most important thing about running a business, you'll get a wide range of answers. But if your business has not found a way to generate cash flow, then that's all you need to focus on. We often think, well, I need a website, I need business cards, I need this, I need that. And you need to focus on creating an offer that sells, or a product that is generating income every day for your business. This is not popular entrepreneur advice. But if you are struggling with cash flow, meaning you are a full-time entrepreneur and you're broke, or if you're struggling to make ends meet, get a job and build your business on the side. Or freelance and build your business on the side. Or use apps such as Uber, or other alternative means that allow you to keep working on your goal or your dream while you're generating cash flow.

Kathi: Yeah.

Shadeed: Entrepreneurship in itself should not lead to you filing bankruptcy. It should not lead to you maxing out your savings. It should not lead to you maxing out your credit cards and damaging your credit. And one of the biggest lessons that I did learn is that your business should operate separate from your personal income and your personal life.

Kathi: Right.

Shadeed: When you understand funding and increasing your fundability, your access to capital, and you separate the two, then you have a greater ability to do that. But most of us start from where we are, with a limited understanding of what a business actually is, and we max out everything we've worked hard for in the journey to build a business. So that would be the greatest lesson. Do not allow pride to set you back. Go to work if you need to, especially during these times when so many people are making adjustments. If you need to work part-time in order to make ends meet, or to give you enough time to pay the bills until clients come in, then there's no shame in doing so, and it's something that I recommend.

If you need to work part-time in order to make ends meet, or to give you enough time to pay the bills until clients come in, then there's no shame in doing so.

Kathi: Yeah, I totally agree with that, and having multiple streams of income is always a good thing, because cash flow is the key. If you don't have the cash flow, you can't do your business and you can't follow your dream. So I like that. And you're right, not very many people say that to entrepreneurs. With the Great Resignation going on right now, I think it's good for people to know that they can do more than one thing at the same time. They can work on the side, they can freelance, they can be consultants as they're launching. They can use whatever skills they have to make the money, as opposed to saying, "Oh, I need to invest in a graphic designer and build a website." Well, let's get a couple of clients first, right?

Shadeed: Absolutely.

Kathi: Okay, so do you have a piece of advice for entrepreneurs who are out there jamming and want to create more freedom? Freedom is a different term for many people, but if they want to have more free time for themselves or more freedom in their business, do you have any tips or advice that you would suggest?

Shadeed: Well, if you want to create more freedom in your business, you have to start with packaging your knowledge. The internet, ladies and gentlemen, is always open. It's always open. For example, my greatest selling digital product was recorded after a panel event. I literally had a sore throat, I was under the weather, but I was inspired by my hero at the time. She bought me a Mountain Dew soda and said, "I love your talking points." This is verbatim. And I was so inspired that I went back to my room and recorded what became my greatest selling digital product. During chapter three of this digital product, you can literally hear the housekeeping vacuuming the room next door. So my point is that this was not a perfect digital product.

Kathi: Yeah.

Shadeed: It was recorded in a hotel on one of the voice recorders I used to use for interviews. I published it, and nowadays it still generates sales. What this means is that you, as a service-based entrepreneur, have problems you solve that can be considered evergreen, meaning millions of people are searching for them every day. And when you separate your knowledge from your time spent making money, it allows you to create income on autopilot. So if you want the lifestyle that you deserve and more freedom in your business, then you have to find a way to earn money while you are asleep, and the way you do that is you create digital assets. Package your knowledge, package your brain. And you can start with beginner content. Do not fall into the lie or the trap that my content isn't good enough. All you have to do is provide the beginner basics of your niche or topic, or provide a topic that people are already searching for, and create content consistently. So instead of creating a blog post, for example, create a mini digital product and allow those products to always work for you.

Kathi: Yeah, that's good. And we're all experts in some regard. And the fact that you don't get stuck in perfection. I say this all the time: perfection's overrated and simply not worth it. The fact that you could just record something and now it's one of your most popular money-generating products. There you go, folks. You don't have to be perfect. And that's something that's so important. In fact, who wants to be perfect? Who wants to listen to perfect anyhow, really? So I love that. Okay, so that leads us to your valuable free resource. What are you offering for our listeners here that will help them juggle their careers?

Shadeed: Well, if we are discussing freedom, and how to get to the freedom that we desire and seek, then you need a road map. Because if you're starting where you are and you have a goal to get there, you're going to spend a lot of time spinning your wheels if you don't know the forward path. The Digital Assets Execution Plan provides you step-by-step guidance, and there's a support feature where you can use either Facebook Messenger or direct message to reach out and get support on how to package your knowledge and escape the time for money trap by creating mini digital products, in order to generate that cash flow that we've discussed and have availability for the people and moments that matter.

Kathi: Yeah, absolutely. I'm excited to download that. I could talk to you for hours and hours, I'm telling you, because you're just fun to talk to, and you're so very knowledgeable. So what's the one question that I should have asked you? We've talked about a lot, and I feel like I could talk to you again and again, but what's the one thing I should have asked you that I did not?

Shadeed: The one question that you should have asked, that the audience would benefit from, is why they should start to enroll students instead of chasing clients for their business.

Kathi: Ah, okay.

Shadeed: What we have to realize, as service-based business professionals especially, is that clients in today's world are under unique pressures that they've never faced at any other time in history. There's an economic squeeze on clients. There's also health concerns on clients. There's also supply chain disruption on clients. So the people who are paying you, who sustain your lifestyle, great clients, are playing a balancing act: should I pay this person versus that person? This is a very unstable way to run a business. So what I recommend is that you create digital programs in order to enroll students. And the reason why you enroll students is because when someone's a student and they come into your university, first of all, they're making an investment or commitment into your program, into the solution that you have. And a student can go many different paths. They can become upperclassmen, for example, and enroll in different programs. They can become an alumni, which is a great endorser of your programs or services. They can become a booster, which is someone who ultimately invests in the growth of your company. They can become a sponsor, where they partner and affiliate with your products and services and help you make more sales. And they can also become a high-ticket client. So if someone comes in and gains value from your coursework, which is always working for you 24/7, because once you create it once you can sell it forever, there may be a few individuals who say, "Well, you know what? I went through your programs and I want the VIP option of what you offer." It's similar to a flight: if there's going to be 100 people who fly coach, there's always going to be 20 people out of that 100 who want the first class experience. So it's better to use your digital programs to pre-qualify those who will ultimately join your higher-ticket programs than to try to convince people, through becoming a client, that they're worthy or ready for your high-ticket programs, because at this time many clients may struggle with paying you what you're worth or being ready to work with you at a higher level. So my recommendation is to stop chasing clients and start enrolling students.

Stop chasing clients and start enrolling students.

Kathi: I love that. Ooh, that's good. All right, we're going to put that on the podcast page, for sure. Well, we've been talking today with Shadeed Eleazer. I'll tell you what, I have learned so much, and like I said, I could talk with you forever, and hopefully we'll speak more in the future. I really, really appreciate your time and your energy today, and have fun finishing up your program. For anybody who wants to hear more, you can download the podcast, you can click to download his free valuable asset, and also look him up online. You will find a lot of very interesting things about Shadeed. So thank you for your time, and I really appreciate the energy that you put into this interview.

Shadeed: Thank you so much. It's been a pleasure.

Kathi: Thanks, Shadeed.